A southeast was blowing some warmer air into
southern Manitoba on Monday. Despite rain in the forecast I had convinced friends
Jeff and Randy Delavau to partake in the greenback walleye run on the mighty
Red River. Randy had not fished since he was a youngster and Jeff not for a
couple of years. As I dressed them in two floater coats to protect against the
weather we headed up river from Selkirk to the “Miracle Mile”.

Use the double stack

Anchoring the boat in 12 feet of water along the
main river channel we dropped our jigs down into the moderate current. I had on a pink and white glow ¼ ounce jig
tipped a 3 inch Berkley finesse minnow along with a salted shiner, while Jeff
had on a chartreuse jig and Randy an orange one. Jeff caught the first three
fish, all small saugers. Randy meantime was feeding the saugers a few of those
shiners as he got used the equipment. I had the advantage this day since I had
been out on the Red three times previous to fine tune my jigging technique.
This day it paid off in spades. Half an hour in, I had a huge smack from an
extremely large walleye. Head shaking in
the current, it took me a while to finally coax this brute up beside the boat.
Jeff hadn't netted a fish for a few years but did a great job of easing him into
the bottom of the mesh. What a way to start the day, a beautiful 29 incher,
fat, healthy and green.

For the next
five hours we landed another seven walleye that were over 26 inches, fish that
have made this river legendary. While
Jeff was struggling, Randy finally smacked a 28 incher after changing over to a
pink jig, rigged the same way I did, with a 3 inch Berkley finesse minnow and
salted shiner.

I have been fishing the river for over 30 years, but
this one of the best days on record personally. And it seems all portions of the river from Lockport to past Sugar Island are producing great fishing.

Some anglers are still catching some real nice walleye trolling Doc Reids. While the federal government started opening the locks on Monday, the fish are recovering and still out there.Still plenty of time to get out and enjoy this special fishing on the Red River.